1069fm

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Off the Air - FOR NOW!

Due to Harrassment by the FCC, we are forced to discontinue our service for a while. We are actively looking for brave ninja warriors wanting to strike a blow against corporate media hegemony. If you know of friendly ninja warriors in San Diego willing to host our gear, please email us: info [@] 1069fm [dot] org.In the meantime, keep supporting independent media in San Diego: 96.9 fm, San Diego Indymedia, RadioActive sanDiego, EarthBound Radio, etc.Until we return, we leave you with this heartfelt message:

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Meet the FCC in LA Aug 31st!

The FCC is holding a town hall meeting in Los Angeles on August 31. One Congressman and two real live FCC Commissioners (head honchos) will be there. You can attend and tell them what you think, yell at them, whatever (well, they probably won’t stand for much yelling).

The org Media Alliance is not only encouraging people to attend and pressure the agency in a more progressive direction, but they are also holding several “prep workshops” about media issues in the week leading up to the event.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Ninjas and Pirates!

Some down time last week, back on the air!

Hey Ninja Radio listeners!

Last week, due to some mix up of katana swords for radio antennas and some crossing of ninja stars and ip numbers, the station was down for about a day or two. Thanks for your patience and tune in again!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

From diymedia.net: FCC Enforcement Action doubled this year

The FCC has now conducted more enforcement actions against unlicensed AM and FM stations in the first half of 2006 than it did in the entirety of 2005, which broke all previous records for cat-and-mouse action. However, this milestone was reached by a bit of paperwork puffery on the part of the FCC. For example, as field agents hunted recent activity on San Francisco Liberation Radio's old frequency (93.7), they sent warning letters to two people and the owner/manager of the building they apparently live in. In the recent past, tagging one would have sufficed.

This year the FCC also broke its drought of issuing forfeiture (fine) notices to pirate stations. Four people have been presented with $10,000 government invoices so far this year, compared with none in 2005. Each case took at least a year to reach that level of escalation, and based on the FCC's prior collection history, it will be lucky if it actually sees dough from half of them.

A few people have also received Notices of Apparent Liability ("pre-fines"); the latest was issued to a man in Florida this month, a year to the day that the FCC opened up its case. Interestingly, although the local police were heavily involved in the proceedings, the authorities elected to go the FCC route instead of with a state felony charge.

To me, the longer view is most interesting. The graph at right represents my count of the number of enforcement actions the FCC has conducted against unlicensed AM/FM/SW broadcasters every year, since 1997.

Note the wave that begins to grow in 2002. The FCC proposed licensed, low-power FM radio in 1999, considered it in 2000, and formally began implementing the service in 2001-02.

The National Association of Broadcasters formally declared war on microbroadcasting on January 12, 1998, which explains the spike that year. The lull of the next three years was a political gesture. Once LPFM stations started to take to the air, the heat was turned back up.

But I do not believe this fully explains the spike in enforcement actions. In 2004, the FCC hit about 30-40 stations with 92 total enforcement actions. 70-80 stations were on the FCC's radar in 2005, when it served up 143. This year, the number of affected stations is already well north of 50. Thus it would appear the number of stations is growing, in rough proportion to the number of enforcement actions taken by the FCC. The administrative inflation, which began last year, bears further watching.

The important conclusion seems to be that LPFM did little, if anything, to satiate the public demand for increased access to the airwaves. It certainly piqued a lot of interest in microbroadcasting, and perhaps made many realize just how easy it is to do, with permission or not.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

radio ain't cheap! lets do a benefit show!

Hi Friends!

We are really strapped for cash and could really use your financial assistance to stay on the air. What we do is a service to our community. If you value that service, please make a donation by clicking the paypal button here:

So, lets do a benefit show! Are you in a band that would like to perform to help out pirate radio in san diego? Can you help us find or get a venue for a show? If so, let us know! If you can help at all, email 1069fm at resist d[]t ca !

Lets keep pirate radio alive and well in san diego! We hope you're enjoying that lovely 150 watt signal and we are too, so lets keep that signal going!

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Getting the kinks worked out

We've been up about month now, and if you've noticed, sometimes we aren't there. But we tightened some bolts, kicked the antennae, and are hoping that we'll be have a more consistent stream from here on out.Thanks for all your positive comments, we really appreciate it.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Reports of New Coverage Area

Hey there 106.9 listeners! We've been keepin gour antennas held high like swords and apparently our new 150 watt transmitter is working really well. One commenter said:

"Your Signal is almost everywhere, even better than 96.9!

Last evening I monitored you from 52&805 all the way to Santee where you dropped out, but once I reached Navajo on the 125 you were back to full strength. Your report of 150 watts is believable, but I would guess you also have a gain antenna based on your coverage area, one of our other guys said your signal was decent almost the Mexican border...

Oh how about that Stereo signal?"

While that's very kind, we still have much to learn about pirate skills and we don't think our coverage is as good as 96.9's. A good ninja must be humble. And as for stereo, we'd love to have a stereo signal. Feel free to hit that donate button and help us make it happen!

Some people have said that the signal cuts out at Claremont Mesa, but others have said that they could pick it up into parts of La Jolla!